On Tuesday, Wisconsinites will vote in an election for an open seat on the state Supreme Court that offers progressives an excellent chance to flip a seat held by a retiring conservative justice—and would shrink the right-wing majority on the high court to just one. Though the race is officially nonpartisan, the battle lines are clear: Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet, who has the endorsements of Sen. Tammy Baldwin and former Vice President Joe Biden, is the progressive choice, while Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock is an arch-conservative who was first appointed to his current position by none other than Scott Walker.
Conservatives hold a five-to-two edge on the Supreme Court, but a Dallet victory would narrow that to just four-to-three, and she stands a good chance of making that happen: In the February primary, she and another liberal candidate, Tim Burns, took a combined 54 percent of the vote, compared to 46 percent for Screnock, and Burns soon thereafter endorsed Dallet. If Dallet can prevail on Tuesday, it would put progressives in a strong position to take an outright majority on the bench in the next few years.
Such a majority could, in turn, act as a brake on the GOP’s worst instincts, which they’ve acted upon repeatedly ever since gaining total control of state government in the 2010 wave. Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature began by passing extreme congressional and legislative gerrymanders that allowed them to easily maintain their majorities even though Democratic candidates won more votes in 2012. Republicans also implemented a new voter ID law, cut early voting and made it harder to register to vote.
And meanwhile, what was the court’s conservative majority up to? It was busy shutting down an investigation into political corruption in Walker’s administration and letting judges refuse to recuse themselves in cases involving their own campaign donors.
Knowing that the state Supreme Court wouldn’t stand in their way, Walker and the GOP have only grown bolder in their attacks on democracy. Recently, Walker tried to avoid calling special elections for two vacant Republican seats in the legislature solely because he thought his party might lose them. After a state court judge ordered Walker to hold the elections, Republican lawmakers plotted a special session of the legislature to nullify that ruling—in effect saying they were willing to cancel elections and deprive voters of their rightful representation.
It took two more orders from two different state courts before Republicans finally backed down and called the elections as required, demonstrating just how critical it is to have judges on the bench who respect the rule of law.
Most importantly of all, Tuesday’s election could pave the way for eventually bringing an end to GOP gerrymandering. If Republicans are still in charge of state government following the 2020 census, we know that they will torment election districts to death in order to preserve their majorities. Screnock himself personally worked for the GOP to defend their current gerrymanders, and there’s little doubt he would side with Republicans in a future lawsuit—indeed, he recently said the "only imbalance" on the court is that it includes two progressive justices at all.
By contrast, if progressives can one day win a majority, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court might follow the lead of Pennsylvania’s and conclude that the state constitution prohibits partisan gerrymandering altogether. But that can only happen if Dallet wins on Tuesday—and she can only win if progressives show up to vote.
